Finding our links in History - One Genealogist's thoughts, tidbits, and inspirations - All very much randomly posed.
One person's life does not stand-alone but interacts with family, neighbors, community, and history. Our Trees become Tangled just by living. --
T.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Bright's Disease is a historical classification of kidney disease which was first described in 1827 by the English physician Richard Bright. Now commonly called acute or chronic nephritis, it was treated with blood-letting to reduce blood pressure, warm baths, diuretics, and laxatives. Sometimes dietary modifications were suggested which involved alkali and acid balance through consuming various foods and drink, lowering the kidney's involvement with blood pH balancing.

3 comments:

Very interesting post! How many times Bright's Disease was listed on a death certificate and I never really looked into what that meant. Thanks for posting - I look forward to reading more on Tangled Trees.

I had to look up scrofulous. Scrofula is a form of tuberculosis characterized by swellings of the lymphatic glands. Scrofulous means you've got that, or you have a diseased appearance resembling that, or "morally contaminated." Really, that's so fine a word, I'm amazed it's not in daily use!